Articles

A car drives through Plato, which has been designated the population center of the U.S., according to the 2010 census. The Census Bureau announced the shift of the popular center's location. The shift since 2000 signifies a larger trend: America's population is marching westward from the Midwest, pulled by migration to the Sun Belt. And in a surprising show of growth, Hispanics now account for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade.

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER and HOPE YEN/The Associated Press ¦

Plato, a Missouri village with a population of 109 people, was designated as the center of the U.S.'s population of 310 million, following a trend of the nation's population growing in the South and West.

Some state agencies have not been monitoring federal stimulus money expenditures as closely as they should have been, an audit revealed. Of the nearly $15 billion Missouri spent in federal funds in the 2010 fiscal year, about $2.6 billion was stimulus money.